Michael Corvin
Michael Corvin is a modern day descendant of the Corvinus Clan. He is the lover of Selene and the father of Eve. He is portrayed by Canadian actor Scott Speedman in both Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. Speedman's facial likeness is digitally superimposed onto a stand-in for Michael's brief role in Underworld: Awakening. In Underworld: Endless War, his voice is provided by Mark Oliver. Early life Michael was born sometime in 1975. According to both the ''Underworld'' and Underworld: Evolution novelizations, Michael's paternal grandparents were originally from Hungary, before migrating to America in the 1940s. As a child, Michael once spent the summer in Hungary with his grandfather. Around the age of 20, Michael began studying medicine. A few years before the events in Underworld, Michael was engaged to a woman named Samantha. However, Michael and Samantha were both involved in a freak car accident that left Samantha fatally injured. Despite his efforts, she passed away before help arrived. Distraught over her passing, Michael chose to leave America and start anew. Recalling the summer he spent in Hungary with his grandfather, he chose Budapest as his new home. He took up a residency as an interning trauma surgeon at the Saint Istvan hospital in Budapest. The Underworld novelization states that he lived in Long Island before relocating to Hungary, and had only been in Budapest for a matter of months before the events of Underworld. ''Underworld'' On his way to work one night, Michael is caught in the middle of a shootout between Vampire Death Dealers and Lycans. Unknown to him, Michael had been targeted by the Lycans for a Hybrid experiment, as his blood might hold a rare genetic trait needed by the group. The goal was to retrieve a blood sample to test, but due to the interference of the Death Dealers, Michael escaped for the time being. Afterwards, Michael comes home, only to be attacked by a Vampire named Selene, who is curious as to why the Lycans were following him earlier that night. Before Selene can do anything else, Lycans attack. Michael runs to the elevator, temporarily escaping both the Vampire and the Lycans. When the elevator opens, Michael is confronted by Lucian, a Lycan with a special interest in Michael's blood. Lucian is shot by Selene, but he is able to bite Michael, infecting him with the Lycan virus. After Selene drags Michael away from Lucian, it is revealed that Lucian obtained a mouthful of blood from Michael by biting him. The Lycan spits Michael's blood into a vial for testing. Selene and Michael run to Selene's car, but Lucian follows. Before Selene is able to run him over with her car, Lucian stabs her, hitting an artery and causing severe blood loss. Unwilling to admit she is badly wounded, Selene ends up passing out at the wheel and drives the car into a river. Michael rescues her from the sinking car, then administers CPR until she starts breathing again and coughs up water. Afterwards, Michael uses part of his jacket to bandage her wound and stop the bleeding. He soon after passes out beside her. The Lycans later test the blood sample acquired by Lucian, and are able to establish that Michael is the carrier of a rare gene known as the Corvinus Strain, passed down by Alexander Corvinus's mortal son. Upon discovering this, the Lycans make it their main objective to capture Michael. They go to Michael's place of work and ask about him. Going against the rules of her Coven, Michael is kept hidden in the coven's manor house for protection by Selene. Upon waking, Michael finds himself confronted by Erika, another Vampire from Selene's coven, snarling at him, having discovered Michael carries the Lycan taint. Michael escapes from the manor by jumping out a window and heads back to the hospital he interned at to treat his wounds. When at the hospital, he shares the events that occurred with a coworker who shortly afterward proves to be untrustworthy. The coworker becomes worried about Micheal's mental state and informs two police officers of Michael's presence in the hospital. Upon seeing the two "officers", Michael acts quickly and escapes the hospital. Michael later shows up back at the manor to find Selene. Selene drives him to one of the secret Vampire safehouses, where she explains to him the full implications of his situation. Selene handcuffs Michael to a chair after kissing him, and gives him a gun with silver bullets. She then leaves Michael at the safe house while she returns to the coven. As the hours pass, Michael tries to break the handcuffs chain by shooting it, but misses. He falls asleep and dreams of someone else's memories from the past. When Michael awakens, he sees Selene rushing into the room. She is being pursued by Lycans, and wants to get Michael out of there. Selene shoots out the window and orders Michael to escape. Scared, he initially hesitates but the gun battle becomes so intense that he falls out the window. On the way down, his body contorts, allowing him to land on his feet unharmed. Two Lycan agents (Pierce and Taylor) discover Michael and kidnap him, intending to take him to Lucian. Upon glimpsing the full moon out of the car's window, he begins to change into Lycan form. To stop this, Pierce and Taylor inject him with an enzyme. Michael is taken to the Lycan den, where he meets Lucian. Once there, he is flooded with Lucian's memories, triggered by the sight of Lucian's medallion, and learns that it was a Vampire Elder named Viktor who started the war between the Lycans and Vampires by killing Lucian's lover, Sonja, his own daughter. Soon afterward, Death Dealers invade the lair. Selene breaks from the group and finds Michael. She releases him from his bounds and the two kiss. As Selene tries to escape with Michael, they are confronted by her jealous suitor, Kraven. Enraged at seeing Selene with someone else, Kraven shoots Michael with silver nitrate bullets. Michael falls to the ground, suffering the effects of the silver bullets due to his werewolf gene. Lucian tells Selene to bite Michael, as it is the only way to save his life. She does, but is knocked aside by a vengeful Viktor. Seeing Michael, Viktor throws him through a wall into a puddle of water. Beginning to feel the effects of both viruses combining, Michael transforms into the first Hybrid. Viktor engages into a fight with Michael, believing that a Hybrid is an "abomination" that should not be allowed to live. Michael initially gains the upper hand, as the Vampire Elder is thoroughly unprepared for his physical strength and speed. But despite being more powerful, Michael does not have Viktor's centuries of combat experience, and the Vampire soon turns the tables on him. Viktor comes close to killing Michael, but is stopped when Selene interferes. To save Michael, she uses Viktor's sword to slice his head in half, killing him. ''Underworld: Evolution'' After Viktor's assassination, Selene and Michael go on the run from both Lycan and Vampire alike. Michael learns to transform at will and soon begins to understand the power he has been given, yet somewhat refuses to submit to the immortal need to drink blood for sustenance. They initially attempt to hide in one of the Vampire safe houses, but Michael refuses to believe Selene when she tells him he shouldn't eat human food, and goes to a nearby restaurant. Michael's attempts at eating normal food go awry when his body rejects it, causing him to begin to vomit explosively. This, and an ill-timed news bulletin about Michael's involvement in the shooting at the subway the previous night catches the attention of two police officers, who level their guns at Michael. Overcome with rage and bloodlust, Michael transforms partially and attacks one of the officers. Realizing what he is doing, he flees the restaurant, pursued by the officers. During the pursuit, he is shot several times, but the timely intervention of Selene saves his life. After incapacitating the police officers, Selene has Michael drink her blood, to help quicken the healing of his wounds. Immediately afterward, Selene and Michael are confronted by the last remaining Vampire Elder, Marcus Corvinus. Believing that Selene has something he wants, Marcus attacks her. Michael shoots Marcus, giving them time to escape. The duo flee to the road, where they hijack a truck. Michael fully transforms into his Hybrid form and begins to battle with Marcus. They seem evenly matched until Marcus nearly throws Michael off the truck, hanging on only by the chains. Selene is able to shake Marcus's hold on the truck by slamming it into the side of a cliff. As the sun rises, Selene hides in the truck, which Michael drives into an abandoned warehouse. There, he covers the windows in black paint and attempts to use a first aid kit to heal Selene's wounds, only to discover they have already healed over completely. They spend the day there and consumate their affections for one another. The next night, Selene and Michael decide to meet with Andreas Tanis, the Official Historian of the Covens. Arriving at his hideout, Selene falls through a trap door, forcing Michael to intervene. He is, however, knocked down a hill by a guard Lycan. Quickly removing his jacket, Michael shifts into his Hybrid form and easily kills two remaining guard Lycans defending Tanis's lair and later frightens Tanis himself. After learning the truth about Selene's family and how the Vampire and Lycan species came to be, Selene and Michael travel to the Sancta Helena, a cargo ship where Michael meets his distant ancestor, Alexander Corvinus. Marcus' sudden intrusion and the subsequent battle causes Michael to be impaled and apparently killed on a steel beam beneath a nearby dock. Enraged and saddened, Selene leaves to stop Marcus from releasing his twin brother, William Corvinus, the first Werewolf and the creator of the Lycan bloodline. Not wanting to leave Michael's body alone, Selene demands that he be brought with her in the helicopter to William's lair. Due to the tremendous healing powers possessed by a Hybrid, his body regenerates, and he is brought back to life. Michael descends into William's lair to save Selene and engages in battle with William. Though he is initially overpowered by the Werewolf, Michael is eventually able to get his hands on William's jaw, and rips his head in half. Distracted by his twin brother's death, Marcus is overcome by Selene, who kills him. Reunited, Selene and Michael passionately kiss as they stand in the sunlight in William's lair. ''Underworld: Awakening'' Six months later, humanity discovers the existence of Vampires and Lycans, and declares war in order to exterminate both species. Selene and Michael plan to escape the city via boat. Michael waits for Selene at the dock when he is ambushed by a police squadron. He quickly changes into his Hybrid form to fight back but is repeatedly shot and sent falling into the water by a silver grenade. Selene dives in after Michael and tries to revive him, but the two are separated by a grenade explosion and captured. They are both cryogenically frozen and placed in stasis chambers for twelve years by biotech giant Antigen, who are working on an antidote for the virus that creates Vampires and Lycans. During captivity, Selene gives birth to a daughter, Eve, born of she and Michael, who sets her mother free, but is unable to locate her father. During Selene's search for Eve after she is taken captive by Dr. Jacob Lane, she finds Michael's frozen state and shoots the chamber, weakening it so he will be released. After both Quint and Jacob Lane are defeated by his lover and daughter, Selene and Eve come back to rescue Michael, only to find that he has already escaped. Using Eve's telepathic link to her father, they follow him to the roof of Antigen, but he has already fled the scene. Selene vows to keep searching for him and knows he too will be hunted now. Powers & Abilities Prior to being bitten by Lucian, Michael was an apparently normal American medical intern, the only remarkable thing about him being his genetic heritage as the mortal descendent of Alexander Corvinus, making him the only known carrier of the Corvinus Strain. Even as a human, however, his courage attracted Selene's notice when he dives out amid a subway shootout in order to save a girl who had been caught in the crossfire between the Vampires and Lycans. While in Hybrid form, Michael regresses to a more feral mentality, his combat style demonstrating a ruthlessness that he had never shown as a Human. He has never been heard to speak beyond growls and roars while in Hybrid form. Despite this, some facet of his intelligence remains, apparent in behaviors such as utilizing a chain as a weapon, and recognizing the objective of adversary and ally alike, (such as when he moved out of the way when Selene opened fire on William). These are possibly high functioning predatory instincts, but there could be more present. In Underworld, when Michael's Hybrid form had settled, his facial architecture remained human, while in Evolution, he sports a short muzzle, and while he was briefly transformed in Awakening, his facial architecture remained human; this may indicate that Michael may be able to alter his Hybrid transformation at will. In Endless War, his Hybrid facial architecture also remains human. Michael also has the ability to change partially, such as his eyes and teeth and even turn his fingers into claws. In Hybrid form, Michael has a combination of Vampire and Lycan teeth, with the Vampire teeth in his top jaw, and Lycan teeth in his bottom jaw. *'Superhuman Endurance': Whether he is in his Hybrid form or human form, Michael can withstand several gunshots and still have enough strength to fight. *'Superhuman Strength': While in his Hybrid form, Michael's strength increases significantly. He held his ground against Viktor, a centuries-old Vampire Elder, in physical combat immediately following the transformation, taking the Elder by surprise with his incredible speed and strength before ultimately falling prey to Viktor's much greater combat experience and superior battle technique. Although Michael is potentially one of the most physically powerful beings of the series, his lack of combat experience tends to put him at a disadvantage when facing particularly experienced combatants, though his raw strength and speed is often enough to compensate for this when facing the average Vampire or Lycan; Viktor is the only non-Hybrid being that Michael has had trouble defeating. He also can punch through a Werewolf's chest with ease. His strength is so great that he was able to kill William, the first Werewolf in existence (who had been weakened by centuries without sustenance), by tearing his head in half with his bare hands immediately after being brought back from the dead due to his hybrid healing factors. *'Healing Factor': Although he seems dependent on blood to sustain himself, his healing is as powerful as the rest of him, allowing Michael to come back to life even after being impaled twice through the chest and provided with only a few drops of Selene's blood with no sign of weakness, although it took him at least a couple of hours to recover. It is possible that if he sustains life-threatening wounds without compensating the blood loss, his body goes into suspended animation, similar to a Vampire Elder's, in order to preserve the brain long enough for it to heal the damage. *'Superhuman Speed': Due to him being a Hybrid, Michael's speed greatly exceeds both Lycan and Vampire, allowing him to move faster than the eye can see and move several metres in less than a second. *'Superhuman Agility': Michael can jump higher and can move more athletically than both Vampire or Lycan. *'Sensory Synchronization:' He and his daughter can perceive through each other psychically as well as sense each other's presence. Trivia * The name "Michael" may be a nod towards the Archangel Michael, also known as the 'Right-Hand of God', of the Christian faith. * Michael's nationality is Hungarian American. In Hungarian, Michael's name is "Corvin Mihály". * In the movie, Michael was interning at the Saint Istvan hospital, while in the novelization, he was interning at the Károlyi hospital. * Michael is the first immortal character in the Underworld franchise to demonstrate a speed akin to teleportation. * Michael has killed all Werewolves and transformed Lycans he's faced, including William Corvinus, his distant granduncle and the First Werewolf who was the only werewolf proved to be a challenge for him. * Prior to meeting Selene, Michael's address was Apartment 510, Block 3B, Laktos Joszef 39 ut. * Though Michael's eyes are blue in the films, the first novelization lists them as being brown, likely due to the book being written before the role was cast. In the novelization, he is also described as having a "disarmingly scruffy fringe of whiskers", a description that actually matches his hospital ID photo in the movie. * The pictures that Selene finds in Michael's drawer at his apartment in Underworld are actual photos of Scott Speedman and his family. * Producer Richard Wright has stated that Michael will return and will be played by Scott Speedman in the fifth Underworld film. * Michael is the first Hybrid shown in the series. * Michael is the only Hybrid that was created due to infection, or bites from both a Lycan (Lucian) and a Vampire (Selene), whereas all other Hybrids were created due to blood transmission/ingestion (Selene and Marcus), scientific means (Jacob and Quint Lane), or genetic inheritance (Eve). This makes Michael the only known survivor from bites of two different Immortal species. Gallery File:Michaelposter.jpg|Official wallpaper featuring Michael. Micheal.jpg|A fan-edited collage of pictures of Michael. Michael.png Category:Character Category:Hybrid Category:Underworld characters Category:Evolution characters Category:Awakening characters